Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member mentioned in his statement, Our Elders, Our Community has been released as a framework for taking action to support seniors and elders throughout the Northwest Territories. Under that document we are taking a number of actions, including developing a number of action plans. One of the action plans is about respite home care for seniors throughout the Northwest Territories, which will benefit all residents in the Northwest Territories including those in Fort McPherson and Aklavik.
The Member has mentioned a couple of times that he has concerns about the workload of the home care workers and the home support workers that actually happen to be in Fort McPherson. I’ve asked the department to work with the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority to do a quick assessment on the workload in that community to see if those home support workers are actually at a higher workload than other areas, at which point I will share that information with the Member and we could have some discussions about that if we need to take some immediate action. Thank you.
This week we’ve been discussing the Health and Social Services budget and hearing quite a bit about system transformation. Also, in some of my past exchanges with the Minister, he has stated that system transformation will include a review and renewal of the Service Delivery Model. So, taking this a step further, I’m wondering if the Service Delivery Model specifically addresses home care workers. In other words, does the Service Delivery Model include a population base formula for determining the number of home care workers assigned to each community, and if not, where are the decisions about home care workers actually made? Thank you.
Thank you. The Member is correct. I mean, as we move forward with system transformation, we are doing that work and that work does take into consideration population, but it also takes into consideration the demands, as well, because not every situation has the same demands. A home support worker in a community could have a multiple number of clients and some of them could be simple with maybe a visit a week. Others are going to take a significant amount of work. The demand will change in communities as the needs of our patients change over time. So, we need to be able to be flexible with that, as well, but we will continue to work with Members and keep them posted as we move forward on transformation as well as keeping them up to date on the work we’re doing around the design as well. Thank you.
I know the department tracks a number of performance measures. I’m wondering: does it track patient satisfaction and program effectiveness, specifically for home care. If so, I’d like to ask the Minister to give the numbers for the Mackenzie Delta communities. Thank you.
We actually do conduct a number of performance or satisfaction surveys throughout the Northwest Territories on different functions. I can’t say for sure whether we have a specific one in the Beaufort-Delta for home care, but I will check and I will confirm that with the Member at a later date. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services in follow-up to my Member’s statement about medical travel while outside of the territory in Canada.
Can I get the Minister to describe what coverage people have when they’re travelling outside of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Travel outside of the Northwest Territories within Canada and outside of Canada is certainly different. The NWT Health Care Plan does cover residents for medically necessary hospital and medical expenses when residents are travelling outside the Northwest Territories and we have reciprocal billing agreements with the different provinces, which actually articulate or dictate what those costs that we’re covering are. We do have an agreement with most of the provinces and territories to direct bill the Department of Health and Social Services for doctor visits and hospital care for medically required services.
Sometimes there are situations where individuals are asked to pay for medically necessary services in provinces upfront. They can submit invoices to us and we’ll reimburse them for those medically necessary services.
What we don’t cover and what is not covered by any jurisdiction are costs such as for medevacs or air ambulances that occur. So if you’re travelling and you’re injured on a highway, as the Member articulated earlier, the cost of the ambulance wouldn’t be covered by the GNWT. Thank you.
Thank you. I guess we have had a couple of situations like this. What has the Minister and the department been doing to get people to know this situation? I think most people think if you’re travelling within Canada, your medical costs are covered for you. Most people buy insurance when they’re travelling outside of the country, obviously, but what is the Department of Health doing to promote the fact that you need to buy travel insurance ?
We do a number of things to make people aware and encourage them to get medical travel or travellers insurance when they travel within country. For the record we’ll say it again, get travellers insurance when you’re travelling outside of the Northwest Territories and Canada. I’d strongly encourage Members to include it on their websites, in their newsletters or any other way that they can.
In the meantime, the department is doing a number of things. We place ads in newspapers, social media, we have a whole bunch of brochures that are available in health centres as well as in travel agencies. I personally have tweeted a number of times to encourage people to get travellers insurance when they’re travelling within the country.
Currently, actually later this month and into next month, we’re planning to do another round of newspaper ads, and we’ve gone to most of the newspapers in the Northwest Territories – News/North, Northern Journal, L'Aquilon – we’re also hoping to be in YK Edge, and we do have brochures, it’s on our website. I know the deputy minister tweets on a regular basis. I’ve seen tweets on this issue from the chief public health officer, and I’d like to see tweets from all of you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I’m just wondering why the disconnection. Obviously, we cover the medical expenses during that time if you’re out of the territory, but why wouldn’t we cover the medical costs in travel costs? We cover the medical costs in the hospital. If you went to the hospital, all your medical costs would be covered, and we cover that medical travel in the Northwest Territories. Why do we not extend that out to the other provinces? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
None of the other provinces or jurisdictions actually provide ambulance services for individuals who are outside of their jurisdictions. Once again, we only cover medically necessary treatment while people are out of the territory. If they go down for procedures that aren’t covered here, we wouldn’t be covering those either.
This is something that’s consistent across the country. We don’t actually provide ground ambulance services here in the Northwest Territories for residents, either, and most of the costs that come from ground ambulance are billed directly to our residents. Most people, a lot of people happen to have insurance or something to cover it. It’s not something that’s covered by any jurisdiction.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I was an MLA, I didn’t even know about this situation. I think we need to get that out there more.
Is there a way that the GNWT would look at doing a group insurance? Obviously, I know I’ve purchased insurance myself and it’s very inexpensive for one year. Is there a way that the GNWT could do a mass insurance for all the people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Not at this point. We do know that there are a significant number of organizations out there that can provide that insurance to residents of the Northwest Territories. I know, when I travel, I go to the Royal Bank and I get the travellers insurance just in case something happens to me when I’m in the South, and I think it costs me $75 or less a month. So I would encourage people to go to one of the many, many providers.
I would also like to take this opportunity to encourage Members to include this information on their websites, in their newsletters, in any tweeting they happen to be doing and when they’re talking to constituents. Let’s make sure that we’re continually reminding people that it’s important to have travel insurance when you travel not only outside of Canada but within Canada outside of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to ask the government – I’m not too sure if it’s the Minister of Finance – the question is on our strategy working to increase the population and bring 2,000 people in by 2019. That’s a couple years away. Is it working?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We believe that the strategy will work. The elements are there. We spent some time getting organized. The private sector, Dominion Diamonds, for example, has taken a very strong position to discourage the fly-out part of the operation, to encourage people to stay here. The Ministers of ECE as well as ITI have laid out through the Nominee Program the increases and the seats are available. Now that we’re going to aggressively pursue maximizing every seat that is there, we can see as much as, if it all works out, 800 people a year with these 250 seats that we can fill, hopefully with folks with families. We’re sorting ourselves out to do the work with our students, to make sure we’re out there recruiting as well. So, we believe we have lots to offer, it’s just a case of us getting organized and taking advantage of the tools that we have at our disposal. So, yes, Mr. Speaker.
With the elements being there and the work that the Ministers are doing, and that’s quite an ambitious project to work on, I want to ask the Minister, what’s the backup plan not meeting the goal here of 800 persons per year and raising the population in the Northwest Territories?
Two thousand people in five years is part of a broader strategy where there’s an enormous focus by this Assembly now and in the past, but definitely going forward on the cost of living. That is where we’re going to want to make the investments in critical economic infrastructure, infrastructure like the Fibre Optic Link, infrastructure like the energy infrastructure where we want to go into the thermal communities and come up with ways to cut the cost by getting folks off diesel with biomass and solar and batteries, other alternative energies, LNG where it’s appropriate, as well as the other infrastructure that’s going to help promote economic conditions in a couple of big roads. There’s the Contwoyto-Tibbitt Lake ice road and converting that to an all-weather road. It’s the next link from Wrigley to Norman Wells and, of course, we also have, in the Tlicho region, the road from NICO Mines up through Whati that we’re putting in an all-weather road. All those things there will combine to create stronger conditions for economic growth and people coming here because they can make money and there’s an affordable cost of living. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It made my day. We’ll see how Cabinet feels about it, but you made by day.
I appreciate the Minister of Finance’s ability to distract the House where we got talking about the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link. That wasn’t the issue; it was about creating a climate for investment such as infrastructure. So my question really is to be focused in on let’s not talk about oil and gas, let’s not talk about the mining sector or the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link.
The Minister is quite right; we have declining revenue through corporate taxation, so what is the Minister doing to attract investment from industry to new investment into infrastructure so we can tax it and create opportunities and jobs? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also feel like I’d be chewing everybody’s cabbage twice here if I repeated my long, fulsome answer that I just gave the Member for Sahtu that captures all the pieces that we’re putting in place to promote economic development, create conditions for growth, grow our population. All those things combine to do the things that the Member has asked about and I won’t repeat them in the same detail that I just did. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate that because I’d hate to see the Minister wrong twice, so I’m really glad we got through that.
The Quebec government has worked very hard to create a taxation scheme that develops and accelerates private sector investment in their economy through strategic sectors they’ve targeted, such as industry, manufacturing and data processing hosting. They realize focused tax opportunities create investment.
What is this government doing about creating investment in targeted sectors for growth? Thank you.
We’ve had this discussion now going back and forth. I’ll keep coming back to the investments we’re making in economic infrastructure, the conditions that we want to create for that economic development, to do the same thing the Member wants. If the Member has a specific tax he wants to talk about… Is he talking about a tax rate, not 11.5 but some other number lower, tax holidays as he calls it for some specific sector? Then stand up and give us a number. Thank you.
Why am I the only one that’s trying to do work here to create investment? It’s not my job to come up with the number. He has all the machinery. He has a multi-million dollar department that can come up with the right balance to create investment. I’m saying, I‘ve given the communications sector as an example to stimulate new investment, because if it’s not here you can’t tax it. So, how do we encourage investment? We have a good taxation structure. Sometimes it means tax holidays; sometimes it means those types of concepts.
Will the Minister invest a little time in his job and stop finding excuses not to do it and find a way to get to the bottom line, which is find a way to get investment in the Northwest Territories from top to bottom in every community?
From my learned young colleague from Yellowknife Centre, I appreciate his passion sometimes verges on bavardage, but in this case I will respond.
We share the same interests and I put as much time in my job, I would venture to say at least as much time as the Member does.
So, we have laid out the discussion here fully. It’s now getting to where we are being repetitive. We are doing the things we think are necessary to promote economic growth, grow the population. The Member wants some kind of tax holiday. I would like him just to specify what exactly that means when we know our corporate tax rate is 11.5 and the business rate of small business is 4 percent. What specifically is he suggesting that would give us advice to be able to possibly look at? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I say to my very senior Member across the way, who probably didn’t hear me for various reasons, I don’t know why, I’m saying let’s create a tax holiday for infrastructure investment that’s new. I gave a targeted sector such as the communications sector a way to help stimulate new growth. I’m not talking about lowering the business tax on any other sector, for any other reason on anything. I’m talking about creating any investment climate, such as a tax holiday.
Quebec can do it. They have the courage to attract new investment. Let’s target sectors that work. We can’t do it all on our budget. Let’s get the private sector in on part on the solution. Thank you.
Once again, we agree. We have the private sector that’s churning out about half of our $3.6 billion GDP. Half of that comes from the diamond mines. We have the private industry hard at work on a P3 process, putting that Fibre Optic Link in that’s going to create a whole industry, telecommunications, IT-focused industry in Inuvik. It’s going to provide that same advantage to every community down the valley. I believe we’re doing the same thing that the Member is asking us to do, and I appreciate him raising repeatedly the issue of the need to have the conditions for economic development. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, February 23, 2015, I will move that Bill 46, Deline Final Self-Government Agreement Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order and ask, what is the wish of the committee today? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We will continue with Tabled Document 188-17(5), continuing with the Department of Transportation and then the Department of Executive. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Is committee agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you. I believe we will take a break before we commence with that. Thank you, committee.
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Thank you, committee. I will call committee back to order. We are on the Department of Transportation reviewing Tabled Document 188-17(5). We will go to the Minister. Do you have witnesses to bring into the House, Minister Beaulieu?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I do.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does committee agree?
